Here are some pictures of a gantry hoist I designed and built for my garage shop.

Construction is as follows main vertical members are made from 4x4x1/4" box tube, base 
is C4 x 7.7 channel.  The load bearing I-beam is a S6 x 12.5 and there are various pieces 
of C3 and ¼" x 4" CRS.

I designed the gantry for 4000 lbs of load centered.

The casters are "Mauler" from McMaster-Carr with 1600 lb capacity each.  The trolley is 
a low-profile CM 2 ton unit, and Coffing 2 ton "superoid" chain hoist is being used.

The entire hoist was welded using a Miller 251 MiG welder, I took extra care and time to 
bevel all the weld joints for thorough weld penetration.

Motivation for the gantry was a Clausing Colchester 13" lathe (approx 2000 lbs) which I 
had to unload from a trailer inside the garage.

The dimensions were designed as follows: overall height just clears a structural beam in 
my garage.  Inside width is 8' 2" which is designed to straddle my 8' workbench when 
not in use.

I built the hoist so it could be disassembled if needed.  The I-beam span or I-beam height 
can also be changed in the future as the current I-beam is bolted to the uprights.

Matt Isserstedt
22 April 2004

matt.isserstedt@gm.com